Trying to grow my style from the past inktober/misunderstood monster prompt, I am going to do this months the same. I figured I would share my process as I go along. My process has grown over time by learning new techniques, testing them and if I like them stick with it.
I always start with a gray toned canvas. This helps when it comes to local color.
Step 1: Come up with an idea and start to scribble a bunch of different thumbnails till I find one I like. Here is the one that I liked the most.
Step 2: Start to clean up the scribbles still keeping it loose.
Step 3: Clean up the loose sketch and add details. In the past this would be my last step before moving into local color.
Steps 1 - 3 all used a sketch brush from Aaron Blaise. You can get it for free when you sign up for his newsletter. I think he still gives it out. I really love the texture and how it feels to sketch with.
Step 4: Ink the piece using my new favorite ink brush from Kyle Webster called Old Brush Ink from his inkbox set.
Step 5: Start to add layers under the ink layer to lay down my local color. I use a brush called DG_Main. Its from Dave Greco. It has a really nice chalk feel to it and I like how it blends colors. I use this brush for pretty much all the painting.
I still need to finish getting the local color in, then I drop a hue/saturation layer on top and drop the saturation to 0. This turns the piece to gray-scale and I can check my values to make sure everything reads correctly. If all good I start figure out where my light source is and start to add my shadows and highlights. I will share those steps when I get to them. Let me know if this is helpful at all.